Academic practice online
A 4-week on-line distance learning programme exploring the roles and practice of the on-line educator, today. What is truly novel or changing in academic practice? Are we reframing on-going themes such as critical thinking and academic method, or are there aspects of digital capability which differ fundamentally from what has gone before?
Through the course we will explore, critique, develop and apply a community/identity/literacy model for the understanding of academic practice.
The course aims to consider what it means to be a ‘literate’ graduate and academic in a digital age and to enable you to represent yourself more effectively to different audiences in different spheres, using different tools for presentation, analysis and understanding of practice.
Intended learning outcomes
- Reframe on-going academic themes such as critical thinking and academic method in the light of new digital media and networks
- Share and evaluate our own practice as teachers in digital contexts in order to better support our learners in developing their ‘literacies of the digital’
- Define community of practice for higher education and compare and contrast contexts where a community of practice approach has been tried
- Identify challenges of launching and sustaining a community of practice
- Build on the concept of multiple (hybrid) identities in order to articulate our own understanding of the nature of human identity in online/digital environments and to examine academic practices in terms of identity projects
- Explain steps that can be taken to better manage our online identity
Week 1: Introducing a community/identity/literacy model for the understanding of academic practice.
Identity, community and literacy are intimately bound up with each other. These three notions might be taken as threshold concepts in the scholarship of teaching and learning. This week will introduce the participants, the model and set the direction of inquiry for the course.
Week 2: Identity on-line
Having a better understanding of identity and identity management will help you to make better decisions about how you represent yourself to others on-line, including students, colleagues, line managers and the wider world (including friends).
Week 3: Community of practice in higher education
A community of practice has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest, joint activities and discussions, a shared repertoire of resources and a variety of forms. Communities of practice, “... constitute a third way between collectivism and individualism” deploying “tropes of solidarity” and “appeals to emotion”. Can we identify communities of practice in higher education?
Week 4: Digital literacy and academic practice
How do we speak as academics through new digital channels? How have social, participatory and collaborative working been changed by new digital media? What does it mean to be academically literate in a digital age?
